Straight Lines
by Rosalina
Summary: In which Remus finds three friends closer than he ever expected or hoped for. JPLE. Please R&R!
1. On the Train

THE TRAIN

Remus heard the footsteps and voices approaching in the corridor before he saw the boy. For a moment his heart beat faster and he felt panic rising up inside him; he squeezed his eyes shut and breathed deeply. _It's okay. _A quick glance at the dark glass window of the compartment showed him the outline of a group of people outside the door. The voices were louder now, and he made out the words as he turned back around to watch the parents standing on the platform. _It's okay._

"But I don't want to sit in here!" This was the boy, and he was angry. "Come on, give in and let me sit with you all!"

A girl answered him, "Stop making a scene. Go on now, everyone knows firsties sit with each other. Time to bond and all that. No, come on, stop being a ninny. I'll see you at the feast."

Receding footsteps, and the boy calling after her. "Narcissa – _Narcissa!_"

A pause. Remus swallowed hard. _It's okay._ And then the compartment door banged open and Remus turned, heart thudding, to see the boy. He was black-haired and tall, and he entered with his back to Remus as he dragged in a large, shiny black trunk. He spoke before he looked at Remus, as he was lifting his trunk into the overhead compartment.

"Sorry to barge in on you like this, mate, but my cousin Narcissa, you know, she won't let me sit with the seventh years, and there's really no arguing with her when she's like that – believe me I've tried – anyway, she's my only cousin at school now, I wish I'd been here with her sisters though, Bellatrix and Andy, they're much more fun – do you have any family here?"

"N-no." Remus, whose two closest friends were his parents, had never know anybody to _talk_ so much.

The boy finally turned around, after successfully shoving his trunk into the compartment. "Ah, who needs family anyway. My little brother –" He broke off as he saw Remus's expression. "Are you all right?"

Now, that was a question worth thinking about. No he wasn't all right. Full moon in six days, his first ever away from his parents, away from the chains and enchantments on their basement. Remus was terrified. But then this boy seemed nice enough, and at least he wasn't sitting alone anymore.

"Yes, fine." He tried for a reassuring smile, but the expression felt odd on his face, so he dropped it.

The boy seemed to accept this. "I'm Sirius Black, by the way."

"Remus Lupin."

"Glad to meet you. So, like I was saying, my brother Regulus gets hold of a bag of dungbombs the other day…"

And Remus was content to listen and stay silent as Sirius talked the hours away.


	2. Love

LOVE

James Potter boarded the Hogwarts Express. Five minutes later he was in love. He knew it was love because it swept over him like a wave, like an actual, physical force, tangling through his hair and twisting around his ankles.

And then he fell over.

But that was okay, because he scrambled to his feet in time to catch a glimpse of her red hair disappearing into a compartment nearby. He stumbled in after her.

Besides James and the red-haired girl, his love, there were two other people in the compartment. One, a tallish boy with greasy black hair down to his shoulders, was already helping the girl stow her trunk as he greeted her like an old friend. _Git_. Never mind, James would help her take down her trunk when they arrived.

"Hi, I'm James," he said, grinning somewhat foolishly.

She spun around, and her hair spun around with her in a glorious wave. "Oh, hello. I'm Lily, and this is Severus."

_Lily_.

No one mentioned the silent, mousy boy in the corner, and he did not introduce himself.

There was a moment of awkward silence as James stared at Lily and Severus, looking somewhat put out, stared at James.

"Erm… well, I'll be back in a minute," said Lily, and she slipped out, closing the door behind her.

James sighed and fell back onto the seat. "I love that girl. Lily." It felt good to say it, like sunshine.

"You – what?" Severus the Git was looking horrified. "You _love _her? _You _love _Lily_? No. No you don't."

"Oh no, I do," James assured him. "I mean, I didn't a minute ago, I only just saw her when I got on the train – followed her into this compartment – she has beautiful hair, doesn't she?"

"Yeah…" said Severus softly. Then he shook his head slightly and glared at James. "You don't love her. You don't even know her! You've barely said two words to each other."

James was undeterred. "Do _you _know her? Are you friends with her? What's she like?"

For reasons best known to himself, the boy in the corner chose this moment to speak. His voice was high and whiny. "Severus knows Lily! He's known her for months! He lives by her. He told me! He said that he –"

"_Shut up!_" growled Severus.

James, who had not noticed the mousy boy before he spoke, was staring at him in astonishment. "Who _are _you?"

The boy sniffed. "Peter Pettigrew. He's going to hit you."

"Wha –"

And then James fell down for the second time, because Severus hit him.


	3. First Night

**This chapter is dedicated to my very first reviewer, **_**RankEgg**_**. Enjoy!**

**And, for **_**Leafeater**_**, a brief summary of where the story is going: 1) James falls in love with Lily and gets rejected repeatedly, 2) Sirius goes from being a pureblood maniac to a decent guy, 3) Remus makes friends, and 4) Peter doesn't do much of anything. **

Remus was sympathetic. He knew that Sirius had been dead set on getting into Slytherin, as this was one of the topics that Sirius had covered on the train. Remus had readily agreed that Sirius would certainly be sorted into Slytherin, but he found it hard to share his friend's obvious horror when this failed to happen. Rather, Remus was glad to have someone to talk to in his house.

Besides Sirius and Remus, there were two other boys in the dormitory: Peter Pettigrew and James Potter. Remus, nervous and shy, avoided their eyes and sat with Sirius on his bed. He tried to start Sirius talking again.

"Bad luck, mate."

No reaction.

"I'm sure your family wont mind, you know, once they get used to the idea."

"They'll kill me," Sirius groaned, falling back onto the bed.

"No…" Sirius probably had a point, though. The catcalls and jeers from his cousin Narcissa and her friends at the Slytherin table when Sirius was sorted were enough to give Remus an idea of Sirius's family.

"Yes," Sirius said, his voice muffled.

"Maybe."

"I can hear my mum now." Sirius sat back up and pulled his lips back from his teeth in a snarl. "Bringing dishonor on the whole family! Associating with filthy blood traitors and mudbloods –"

"Oy!" James had been staring dreamily out the window; now he whirled around looking shocked and angry. "Mind what you say, you don't even know us!"

Sirius seemed to understand the meaning behind this; he raised his eyebrows at James, who answered his unspoken question.

"Pure. All right?" He glared at Sirius.

Sirius turned to Peter, who had been listening wide-eyed to the entire exchange. Peter squeaked "Pure!" at once.

Sirius turned back to Remus, who was blushing hard. _Why me, why now? _He had to say it, couldn't just say nothing with Sirius staring at him. "Half," he whispered, knowing he was probably about to lose his only friend in this place.

Sirius stared at Remus for a moment, and his expression was unreadable. Then he made a soft noise: "Tchah!" and turned away.

"Bastard," murmured James. He went back to his window.

Horribly, Remus felt tears welling up behind his eyes. Praying that no one would see, he stood up and walked back to his own four-poster, where he immediately pulled closed the heavy drapes around the bed. There he silently cried for homesickness and loneliness and the hurt of losing Sirius.

**And there you have it. Leave a review!**

**-Rosa**


	4. Peter

**Fine. Peter can do something. He can do what he always does, yeah?**

On the first day of classes, none of the Gryffindor boys were speaking to each other. Remus, having been rejected by Sirius, was too shy to try to befriend anyone else. Sirius was busy getting friendly with the Slytherins. James was rather disgusted with the whole lot of them. Peter was making plans of his own.

Remus was the first to go up to bed that night, wishing to escape the crowded common room. Peter watched him go. He glanced around to see if anyone was watching, and then followed Remus up the spiral staircase.

Remus was rummaging in his trunk. He turned around when he heard Peter come up the stairs. Seeing who it was, he smiled politely in greeting and then went back to his trunk, obviously expecting Peter to go to bed.

Peter had other plans. He walked over so that he was standing beside Remus' bed, where he knew Remus couldn't help but see him.

"Hello," he said kindly, "I'm Peter."

"Oh – yes, I know," said Remus, looking up again. "I saw you being sorted," he added.

"Oh, of course," laughed Peter. "I just wasn't sure you'd remember me…and after last night…I just feel so, so out of place here, you know?" he said, shooting Remus a sharp glance.

"Yes," said Remus fervently. "Absolutely."

"Oh, thank goodness!" sighed Peter, now smiling again. "I don't know what I'd do if I didn't have someone to talk to. I was afraid you'd think I was stupid," he added, smiling humbly, "but I felt like I could talk to you. You seemed so much nicer than the others."

If James or Sirius had been there, they would have seen through Peter at once. His careful flattery, the way he had noticed and identified with Remus' loneliness, even his tone of voice – all of it was well done, but a pretty obvious act.

Remus was oblivious. Just when he had thought that he was all alone, here was Peter. Peter, who had _chosen_ to approach him because he had thought that Remus looked friendly. And who had admitted that he, too, was shy and nervous of his classmates, of Remus even!

That was all it took to win Remus over completely.

Peter moved on to the next phase of his plan.

**He's the same Peter as always…just because he's not blatantly evil doesn't mean he's not sneaky! Leave a review,**

**Rosa**


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